Book 4: Robotech: Battlehymn

by Nathan Stout (of AccordingToWhim.com)

Welcome to the next post in my 2012 Robotech experience. Today I will be covering the fourth book in the Del Ray Robotech series: Battlehymn.

The book covers six episodes but I am watching the show one episode at a time then reading only the part of the book that covers that episode. Finally I will be reading the comic that corresponds to that episode.

The opening chapter is an invention of the author and it deals with what it might have been like to be on Earth when the SDF-1 showed back up after it's long voyage. It was neat to consider the surprise and panic it would have caused.

How even more fantastic would it have been for the people of the city who the SDF-1 first flew over (in the show). That would be awesome!

Yes, the two authors must be doing alternate books. This is the author that paraphrases what's going on as opposed to the other guy who is sticking very close to the show.


One thing I liked is that more emphasis was placed on the SDF-1's departure from Earth. It was a big moment in the story and in the lives of everyone on the ship and it was nice to see it given more here.

Dolza recalls Azonia and puts Breetai back in charge of the mission. If you payed attention you would have noticed that Azonia did absolutely nothing during her command. It was Khyron that kept going in and getting his ass handed to him.

I'd like to know where the spies got the ship to escape back to the fleet... in the previous book they mention that the pod dissolves so no trace is left but no one seems to know where the escape pod came from. My guess is that in the series it is the same pod they arrived in.

When Gloval announces that the SDF-1 has been ordered back into space Minmei breaks out in song... right there in the middle of the newscast. What an entertainer!

The writer makes a goof here when he is writing about Rico and the other spies talking. He says that Rico has only 'one good eye'. It's almost like he got Breetai mixed up with Rico.

When Rick and Lisa are trapped in the SDF-1 during the battle/drill/what the heck ever it was the book doesn't handle it as well as the show. The language is a little more natural but the feelings conveyed are not a 'blooming love' as they appear to be in the show.

I'm still stunned that Breetai would use his own ship and risk its destruction when he tries to get his troops inside the SDF-1 via the Dadelus attack. Seems awful risky...

I don't have a lot more to say about Minmei in this book. She takes a back seat to the action of the spies, Rick and Lisa, as well as the Zentraedi bungling.

It's funny the way the writer deals with previously unaddressed things in this book. Myria sees the defected aliens working right after their arrival on the ship and assumes (wrongly) that they were planted there for sabotage. Khyron is stunned to find out that Myria is there and assumes (wrongly) that she is there to find and kill the defectors. All the while Breetai takes credit for Myria being there, never telling Khyron it wasn't his idea.

Book 2: Robotech Battle Cry

by Nathan Stout (of AccordingToWhim.com)
Hey all! Welcome to the next blog post in my year long look at Robotech. This post is about the Del Rey Robotech novel: Battle Cry. If you remember I split up the first book into 2 posts since the first part of the first book took place way before the show started (with Zor's backstory).

This book deals with the next set of episodes in novelization form. For some reason I always thought that the book each contained six episodes worth but that just ain't so. It's pretty close but not quite. Perhaps they were shooting for a general length for each book so that's why it the material covered varies. This one finishes with the 12th episode so maybe it just took longer to deal with the first few episodes to set up a good series.

This book picks up right when Rick joins the RDF and he goes out on his first mission. Once again Jack McKinney takes the show and elaborates on it. They take the show and give it more realistic feel. This book is no exception.

Early on in the book Captain Gloval gives the order to move the destorids to the front of the Dadelus for Lisa's plan. He gives the order to move all: 'Destroids, Spartans, and Gladiators'. This one again gave me pause. If you remember while covering the show I mentioned that he called the big robot known to me as a Radar X, a Destorid. I just assumed that it was a mistake but once again the reference is here in the book. I always had known them as Radar X because of the Role Playing books. Could it be that all these years I was the one wrong about that? The two sources conflicting and I taking the one I knew best (the RPG). Well, you live and you learn. To me though, all non-flying robots are collectively known as Destroids... sorry ghost of Carl Macek!

Wait wait wait! Just a couple of paragraphs later Jack McKinney describes the Destroids in the bow of the Dadelus. He uses the word collectively... now I'm really confused. Perhaps McKinney was just unsure of the usage during the show and decided to just leave Gloval's dialogue as-is. Fhew...

In the 'Forward' of Chapter Four there is reference to Khyron's ingesting the flower of life. This is the first mention of this and it's only found in the novels. This must have been a Jack McKinney device. I remember when I first read it way back when that I thought it was their way to account for Khyron's un-Zentraedi-like behavior.

Before they land on Mars the book says that Gloval consults the other commanders on the SDF-1. This is one of those things that is written to be more realistic since in the show and comics Gloval makes all the decisions while in real life decisions like it would be by committe.

If there was 'added' gravity via the gravity mines that trapped the SDF-1, wouldn't people on the ship feel the 'added' gravity?

I made a big deal in the comic review of this part of the story that they were referring to the base as Sara, not Sera. For some reason I always thought it was Sera Base, not Sara Base. I guess that was just my misunderstanding.

Minmei's enthusiastic response to getting Rick's medal as a birthday present is re-worked here as to not make Minmei look like such a shallow human being. There was no talk of it being 'sparklie'.

Colonel Edwards is mentioned in passing in chapter 9 and I thought that was cool. To mention so early someone who would later play a huge roll (in the Sentinels) was neat.

The author(s) began to referring to Rick's team as Vermillion (as the show does) but on their first mission they are called Black Team. I wonder why.

I know I forgot to address this on the show blog but the theme that they play for the Miss Macross pageant is the same tune for Stage Fight. In the book Minmei apparently wrote that song. So what's the story here?

The author must have changed or something during the Miss Macross pageant. They do a LOT of re-writing of what happens in the show. It's more of a re-telling than adaptation.

Infact, there is a lot of re-telling for the rest of this book. I am wonder why I was under the impressions the books were far more direct in their representation of the story all these years. It's not bad or anything, it's just that I had a different remembrance of them. Perhaps it was due to the fact that I had read the books before watching the show again... I don't know.

Rick's comment about Women not being able to do some tasks because they were just to hard is politically removed from the book. Rick doesn't sound like such a bastard here! lol. Come on! He's young and bound to say dumb stuff!

I found it interesting that the restroom that I was so surprised about where Max knocks out the Zentraedi while in his Battloid is called a utility closet here in the book.

The book finishes with the end of episode 12 (and issue 12 of the comic). Rick, Max, Ben, and Lisa are rescued from their stolen battlepod and are safetly on their way back to the SDF-1.